Opinions

America has an illness

This country has an illness, and it is past time that we, as responsible citizens, take action on it. The disease I am referring to is the frequency of death by gun violence as illustrated by the recent shootings in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas. Like any other disease, it has both a cause and symptoms.

The first thing I would like to address is the symptom of the disease. In my opinion, the symptom is the ease of access by disturbed members of the public to almost military-grade, assault-style weapons. This, of course, has to do with the Second Amendment of the Constitution, which states “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”

To put a historical perspective on this: In 1784, a William McMurray map of the U.S. showed that most states at that time had no western boundaries, and those who lived in the western (frontier) areas had to have access to firearms in order to hunt for food and — there being no organized police force until 1845 — to defend themselves. There was also a fear that a large standing army in peacetime posed a threat to liberty. Also, when the Second Amendment was approved in 1789 for ratification, many of the former colonies considered the militia to be the body of those citizens who were trained in firearms. Also, at the time, all firearms, including military, were black-powder, single-shot weapons that the average citizen could load, aim and fire at a rate of at most three times per minute.

Things have changed radically since then. All of the states now have fixed borders and officially organized police forces. There are no more frontier areas. We now have a federally constituted military. What we consider to be the militia today are the Army and Air Force National Guards, as well as various federal military reserve units. At this point, I have to mention that I personally have no problem with a responsible person owning a firearm for hunting or self-defense purposes. But we now have available to the general public high-powered, semi-automatic assault-style weapons that can hold magazines of up to 100 rounds, and that can be aimed and fired as fast as one can pull the trigger. Some can even be modified to become fully automatic. I agree 100% with Kevin McGee’s commentary of Aug. 19 that such weapons should not be made available to the public. These are weapons that no 18th-century mind could have anticipated. However, placing a permanent and total ban on the manufacture and sale of such brings up the problem of a possible slow erosion of Second Amendment rights. I believe that the best way we can address this particular problem is to persuade firearm manufacturers to voluntarily cease making these types of weapons, and to get firearms retailers and sellers to voluntarily stop selling them.

All of this only covers the symptom of the disease. I believe the disease itself is being passed over the internet by the purveyors of hate, racism and intolerance. There are only four ways I can think of that we can attack this:

  1. Proceed legally and peacefully with all vigor against any terrorist groups.
  2. All public officials need to stop making derogatory remarks in public — or via Facebook, tweets, e-mail, etc. — against any group or individual concerning their race, religion, nationality, country of origin, etc.
  3. Parents and schools — if they aren’t already doing this — need to educate their children on racial, sexual and religious tolerance.
  4. Last — and perhaps most effective — those companies that own and operate online messaging services such as Facebook, Twitter, AOL, etc., need to voluntarily censor any emails or messages that promulgate hatred or intolerance.

George Darrow is a retired Air Force Technical Sergeant who served on active duty from 1958 through 1978. He was stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base in 1973, and has lived in Anchorage ever since. He is an alumnus of UAA with a bachelor’s degree in history. Upon graduation, he spent 20 years working for the Veterans Administration in Anchorage, retiring from there in 2005. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the Alaska Veterans Museum.

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